Gretzky Sets the Ground Rules

It won’t be more than three days for Wayne Gretzky to know whether he will remain with the Kings. But he knows what can keep him in Los Angeles--the addition of two players, a 50-goal scorer and an offensive defenseman.

“This won’t take long--we’ll know on Tuesday,” Gretzky told The Times here Saturday after practice at the United Center.

That’s when Gretzky’s agent, Michael Barnett, is scheduled to sit down with King owners to discuss his client’s future and franchise’s direction. Gretzky, in an interview to run tonight on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” also said the same thing about a quick timetable.

And, once again, Gretzky pointed out the Western Conference is not strong beyond Detroit and Colorado. He feels the two additional elements would make the Kings viable contenders.

“We don’t have a 50-goal scorer,” he said.

He did not throw out any names of such players but did have an offensive-minded defenseman on his wish list, Detroit’s Paul Coffey, a former King as well as a close friend. Gretzky was devastated when Coffey was traded away in January 1993, in what is widely considered one of the franchise’s worst deals.

In Chicago, Gretzky faced yet another round of questions about his future, making this the fifth consecutive day it has pushed everything else into the background.

“I don’t put any stock in all the rumors,” he said. “But, as they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Two reports in Toronto on Saturday had Gretzky being traded this weekend to St. Louis in a multi-player deal, one calling it virtually a done deal. King General Manager Sam McMaster emphatically denied that scenario, and the team’s representative on the NHL’s Board of Governors, Robert Sanderman, said that neither he nor the team’s owners have been talking to any team about trading Gretzky.

“We are having discussions with Wayne, and those will continue,” Sanderman said Saturday from his home in Colorado. “It’s more of a concern to us that Wayne is playing so well, the last thing we want to do is have him distracted.”

Meanwhile, Blues President Jack Quinn also called the Toronto reports premature, saying: “It ain’t gonna happen this weekend.”

But the Blues have made it clear they are ready to spring into action after the meeting on Tuesday, if the Kings can’t fulfill Gretzky’s wish list.

“If the Kings want to move him, we’re very interested,” St. Louis General Manager and Coach Mike Keenan said. “We have cutbacks in the budget, but this is a unique situation. I’ve heard he wants to play through the next Olympics. He wants another Stanley Cup, the World Cup and an Olympic gold medal.”

Still, the signals continue to be mixed ones. Gretzky, talking to ESPN, did sound a positive note about his future in Los Angeles as he spoke about a recent conversation with his father, Walter.

“He thinks I’m going to be a King at the end of the week,” Gretzky said. “And he’s usually right.”